Research on architecture and evolution of the European Union meta-network model

In the intervening years, more and more governments have joint the Inter-governmental Organizations. The European Union (EU) is one of the biggest and oldest political and economic organizations, which now has 28 member states. This manuscript tried to reveal its architecture and evolution from the perspective of Social Network Analysis (SNA). We gathered empirical data from the UN Comtrade Database and other open sources though the Internet. Then, we try to construct a meta-network model of the EU. Under the help of Organizational Risk Analyzer (ORA), we finished the quantitative calculation of its network parameters. Through correlation analysis, we find a significant upward trend and positive correlations between the parameters of the network and the economic. As the primary purpose of establishing Inter-government Organization is to enhance the cooperation level, the measures of meta-network is a rather convenient way to explore the organizational structures and test the cooperation efficiency.